Sony Cyber-shot RX100

9/10

Wired

Truly amazing sensor packed into camera that fits in your pocket. Beautiful Zeiss lens opens up to f/1.8. Fast and accurate autofocus. ISO range from 125 to 6400, and an Auto ISO mode that never misses. The best manual control ring I’ve used on a point-and-shoot. Big LCD. Deep levels of programmability let you nerd out, or just switch to the excellent “Superior Auto” mode and shoot in simple bliss. Outstanding battery life.

Tired

No matter how you look at it, 0 is a lot of cheese. No viewfinder. Pre-programmed scenes lack intelligence. Video export isn’t as smooth or easy as it is on other cameras.

We’re all carrying around perfectly capable cameras on our smartphones, so if you’re going to recommend adding the bulk and expense of a compact camera without an interchangeable lens, it’d better be truly exemplary.

This is the camera that turned me around: The Sony Cybershot RX100, a $650 point-and-shoot. It’s not exactly a new camera — it’s been out since mid-2012, and I grew curious only after reading rave reviews from the likes of David Pogue at The New York Times and Steve Huff at Stevehuffphoto.com, both of whom praised it as the best pocket camera ever made. It’s also The Wirecutter’s current top pick among all point-and-shoots. Talk about the belle of the ball, right? So, I called in a review unit and spent three months with it, carrying it around with me in the city, and taking it on a vacation in Hawaii to test it. At the end of those three months, I can agree with the others — if you’re in the market for a pocket camera that possesses rocket-fast speed, isn’t a burden to carry, and delivers absolutely awesome photos, this is the one to buy.

You get a lot for your $650. The lens is a thing of beauty, a Carl Zeiss monstrosity with a maximum aperture of f/1.8. There’s also a massive sensor inside: a 1-inch, 20.2-megapixel CMOS. I say “massive” because even though it’s not quite as big as what you get in a Micro Four-Thirds or DSLR camera, that’s way better than your average point-and-shoot. I also use “massive” in the sense that it’s reality-altering. The sensor has turned upside-down my expectations of what’s capable from a point-and-shoot. We’re talking beautiful, color-rich, absolutely clear photos in the most common daylight conditions, and very impressive photos in harsh light and low light.

The other impressive thing about this camera is the case. It’s remarkably compact, just a little bigger than a pack of cigarettes. The lens assembly only juts out about 11 millimeters (total thickness is 36 mm), and otherwise the case is smooth with no other protrusions. It’s the same size as a Canon S100, but a little thicker. Notably absent is a viewfinder of any sort, which I admit was an immediate turn-off for me. But after a month or so of use, I didn’t really miss it. The RX100 has a gigantic 3-inch LCD screen on the back, and it’s easy to customize the amount of real-time information shown on the display. Also, the controls are simple and stellar, with a mode selector switch on the top of the case, a dedicated video record button positioned near your thumb, a standard jog-click wheel below it, and an assignable control ring around the lens.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

I found it easiest to keep the control ring set as a scene selector by default, so I could use it to switch between marco mode and regular shooting modes. When I was shooting in low light, I’d set it to adjust the exposure settings. It’s easy to program. One thing I never had to use it for is manual focus. The RX100 has an accurate and fast autofocus, and it almost always locked in where I wanted it to in my testing. I never felt like I couldn’t rely on it to focus for me, except for in the darkest conditions.

Also, the manual control ring has a really smart design — it’s just a shade taller than the camera’s body, so if you’re looking at the back of the camera, you can see a tiny bit of ring poking out along the bottom and top edges of the case. This is ideal, as you can make tiny adjustments or switch shooting modes while shooting one-handed just by creeping your thumb or index finger forward to give the ring a little push in either direction, and you can do this while continuing to keep your shot in the frame.

The zoom range is 28-100mm, but the lens only holds at f/1.8 while it’s wide open. Start zooming in and the lens speed drops quickly. That’s expected, but in this case, it’s not a deal-breaker because the RX100 has a truly superior lens.

Something else that’s superior is the camera’s speed. It starts up very quickly — the screen jumps to life and the lens pops out in about a second — and it processes shots in an instant. Zero complaints here, which is a first for me in my experience using point-and-shoots.

When viewing my sample photos, keep in mind that I did not shoot in RAW (it captures Sony ARW 2.3), but in the large 5472×3648 JPEG setting. If you want to see the original files and study the Exif data, go to Flickr.

Video is as capable as you’d expect. I mostly shot in full-auto mode at 1080p and 60fps with great results, but you can dial in aperture and exposure settings manually if you’d prefer. The zoom control slows down when you’re in video mode, and there’s some electronic stabilization apparent. The one stumbling block was accessing the AVCHD video files — it was near impossible. I couldn’t get the videos to export to iMovie, iPhoto, Lightroom or Premiere. I eventually had to hand it off to a video production professional to get the files into an editing environment. I’m not an expert, but I do know my way around the import/export game, and it shouldn’t be that difficult to access my amazing HD footage of chickens running around a beach parking lot.

Another shortcoming: the panorama feature. Every point-and-shoot does this now — you point your camera at one end of an amazing scenic view, press and hold the shutter, then slowly sweep across the scene. The camera stitches multiple shots of the scene together to create a panorama. The problem with the RX100 is that the exposure and aperture settings are determined when you frame the leading edge of the shot, and they’re held throughout the entire sweep. So, changes in light across the scene result in panoramas where portions are either blown out or significantly dimmed. Shooting panos of some of the amazing vistas on Kauai, it took me as many as ten tries to achieve a satisfactory result. I found a few of the other “scene modes” to be a little too dumbed down, as well. That’s fine if you know what you’re doing in the settings menus, but for $650, I would expect more.

It’s so small and so powerful, you won’t think twice about carrying it along, and you probably won’t ever be disappointed with the results.

But there isn’t much I’d change about the camera. The lack of a viewfinder initially gave me pause, but I warmed to the LCD quickly. The black metal case design is awesome, really the best I’ve seen in a pocket camera. I simply love the hardware controls unconditionally, and the software is easy to navigate. There’s a thick user guide in the box, but I never really needed it. Even the pop-up flash is decent (I think that’s the first time I’ve ever said that) and it tilts so you can bounce it.

The whole reason you’d spend big money on something like this is so you can capture those shots that exist beyond the abilities of your smartphone camera. If that’s you — the one who’s always wishing their pictures were a little sharper, a little sweeter, a little brighter, a little tighter — then this is the camera you want. It’s so small and so powerful, you won’t think twice about carrying it along, and you probably won’t ever be disappointed with the results.

There are better fixed-lens compacts in 2013’s crop of cameras, such as the $1,300 FujiFilm X100S and Sony’s $2,800 full-frame RX1. But then you’re talking about way more money. At the other end of the price spectrum is Olympus’ just-released XZ-2, a $550 compact with a similar size, lens, and control arrangement, but with a lesser sensor. And the sensor is a big part about what makes the RX100 so desirable, so it remains the camera I’d recommend for now. Also, since the RX100 has been out for several months, there’s a chance you can pick one up on sale, or that a price drop will happen soon. So keep your eyes, and your mind, open.

Photo by Alex Washburn/Wired

UPDATE, February 14th: When comparing cameras at the end, the original version of this review cited the wrong camera model from Olympus. The correct camera is the Olympus XZ-2.